� NNPC wades in, set to crash price By Mike Oduniyi and Ndubuisi Francis, 11.05.2004
I t was a pitiable spectacle for local and international airlines operating in Nigeria yesterday as an acute shortage of aviation fuel, otherwise known as Jet A-1, threw the entire industry into a fresh crisis. Many of the airlines could not operate regular flights, bringing to a climax the mounting unease over the supply and pricing of aviation fuel in the country. However, succour is expected to come the way of the airlines today following the delivery of about 42,000 metric tonnes of aviation fuel by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to the domestic market. The crippling crisis has taken a new turn with foreign airlines like Emirates, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Arilines choosing to fly out to neighbouring Ghana to buy fuel. While a litre of aviation fuel sells for N60 per litre in Ghana, it goes for between N80 and N85 per litre in Nigeria. Ghana imports all its crude oil from Nigeria and refines at home. The Senior Station Manager of EAS Airlines, Mr. Kayode Adeniran, told THISDAY last night that the airline could only operate one of its eight daily flights yesterday because of the non-avialability of fuel. Sosoliso Airlines, which was hard hit two days ago, was only able to operate skeletal services yesterday. Mr. Chima Obi Oji, an official of the company, told THISDAY that the company had to make some alternative arrangements in order to operate a few flights yesterday. The chairman of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), Dr. Steve Mahonwu, refused to talk last night, apparently angered by the economic discomfort and dislocation the crisis has caused the aviation industry. "I'm not going to speak on the matter," he said. THISDAY checks however revealed that the fresh consignment of the jet fuel lifted from Port Harcourt refinery aboard the vessel MT Alegera, berthed in Lagos yesterday and began delivery to marketers' depots. "We will start moving the product to the Murtala Mohammed Airport from tomorrow (today)," a senior official of one of the major aviation fuel marketers said. According to competent industry sources, the delivery of the product from the local refinery landed at about N66 per litre, while marketers hoped to sell the fuel at a reduced price of between N74 and N77 per litre. It was gathered that disagreement between marketers and airline operators over the appropriate price of the fuel, triggered the current crisis in the aviation sector. Marketers, it was gathered, had intended selling the fuel to operators at between N80 and N86 a litre, which an official said, "was in line with the market price of imported Jet A-1." Airline operators promptly rejected the price, citing their inability to raise air fares to a corresponding level. The Coordinator of the Lagos operations of Chanchangi Airlines, Alhaji Mohammed Tukur, had noted Thursday that scarcity of the fuel after marketers ran out of stock, was the reason for the spate of flight cancellations over the last two days. Marketers said yesterday they had indeed pulled out of importing the product after airline operators had stated catergorically that they would not be able to buy the fuel at the real import cost. "The aviation fuel sector is fully deregulated, and since the NNPC is not supplying us again and we could not get to sell the fuel at the correct, we too did not import," an official said. Oando Plc had, for some time now, remained the only marketer sustaining the operations of some airlines.
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